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Posts by author

Peter Orner

43 posts
Peter Orner is the author of two novels, two story collections (Little, Brown), and the editor of two oral histories (Voice of Witness/ McSweeney's/ Verso). His latest book is Am I Alone Here?, an essay collection published in November, 2016 by Catapult with illustrations by Eric Orner. A new book of oral history set in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and co-edited with Dr. Evan Lyon, will be published by Voice of Witness/ Verso, in January, 2017. Peter Orner currently teaches at the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers as well as at San Francisco State University where he is currently chair of the Creative Writing Department.
  • Features & Reviews
  • Politics
  • Rumpus Original

The Rumpus Interview with Christopher Goffard

  • Peter Orner
  • February 1, 2012
Wherever he went, the man of God carried his shotgun… Christopher Goffard’s You Will See Fire is a tense and harrowing look at the life and mysterious death – of…
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  • Features & Reviews
  • Peter Orner
  • Politics
  • Rumpus Original

THE LONELY VOICE #15: Be Aware of Your Own Ridiculousness, A Small Tribute to Václav Havel

  • Peter Orner
  • January 5, 2012
That Václav Havel’s death was overshadowed by Kim Jong Il, that loopy coward, is a joke that might have made Havel, the writer, laugh. Idiot tyranny finally pays him back…
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  • Features & Reviews
  • Peter Orner
  • Rumpus Original

THE LONELY VOICE #14: Isaac Babel, Every Grief Soaked Word

  • Peter Orner
  • December 14, 2011
I mourn him like a lost brother. I’ve no right to say this. It’s ridiculous. Yet some voices, we convince ourselves, can’t be lived without.
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  • Features & Reviews
  • Peter Orner
  • Rumpus Original

THE LONELY VOICE #13: Walser on Mission Street

  • Peter Orner
  • November 1, 2011
I confess I like reading stories about people who are more depressed than I am. Other people’s misery has a way of lifting the soul a little.  Happy stories?  They’re…
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  • Features & Reviews
  • Peter Orner
  • Rumpus Original

Census, 1980

  • Peter Orner
  • October 20, 2011
An excerpt from Love and Shame and Love by Peter Orner, our November Rumpus Book Club selection (which is already receiving wonderful reviews, so now’s a great time to join…
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  • Features & Reviews
  • Peter Orner
  • Rumpus Original

THE LONELY VOICE #12: Cheever in Albania Or The Lonely Voice Hates Travel Writing

  • Peter Orner
  • July 21, 2011
There are few things more riveting than watching people gossip in a language you don’t understand.
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  • Features & Reviews
  • Peter Orner
  • Rumpus Original

THE LONELY VOICE #11: Eudora Welty, Total Bad Ass

  • Peter Orner
  • May 25, 2011
Greatest American short story writer? Ever? For me, it’s not even an interesting question. Welty in a landslide.
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  • Art
  • Features & Reviews
  • Peter Orner
  • Rumpus Original

THE LONELY VOICE #10: Two Boys Fighting, Omaha Nebraska

  • Peter Orner
  • April 11, 2011
Two boys are fighting. Neither is especially interested in beating the other up but once these things start, sometimes you’ve got no choice but to go ahead with it.
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  • Peter Orner
  • Rumpus Original

THE LONELY VOICE #9: We Don’t Have to Live Great Lives

  • Peter Orner
  • March 19, 2011
I spent most of today re-reading Andre Dubus’s “Voices From the Moon”.[1] It is one of those stories. When you finish it you concentrate a little harder on your own…
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  • Features & Reviews
  • Peter Orner
  • Rumpus Original

THE LONELY VOICE #8: In Praise of Inaction, Bellow’s “The Old System”

  • Peter Orner
  • December 14, 2010
I’ve been hearing the short story is dead again. The real money is in novels. Screenplays! A short story? Why don’t you go and write a haiku while you’re at…
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  • Features & Reviews
  • Peter Orner
  • Politics
  • Reprint

Underground America: Permanent Anxiety

  • Peter Orner
  • May 5, 2010
“The Arizona law is not the problem. The problem is that we continue, on all sides of the political spectrum, to not listen to those most directly affected by immigration…
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  • Features & Reviews
  • Peter Orner

THE LONELY VOICE #7, The Rumpus Short Story Column: My Son the Murderer

  • Peter Orner
  • June 30, 2009
In honor of Governor Mark Sanford and Michael Jackson’s (bless his Indiana soul) favorite holiday, today’s Lonely Voice is devoted to dads, interesting, fascinating, All-American dads…
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